What is a Pronoun?

A pronoun is defined as a word or phrase that is used as a substitution for

a noun or noun phrase, which is known as the pronoun’s antecedent. Pronouns
are short words and can do everything that nouns can do and are one of the
building blocks of a sentence. Common pronouns are he, she, you, me, I, we, us,
this, them, that
Types of Pronouns
Pronouns can be divided into numerous categories including:

 Indefinite pronouns – those referring to one or more unspecified objects,

beings, or places, such as someone, anybody, nothing.
Indefinite pronoun examples:
1. Anyone
2. Somebody
3. Whichever
4. Whoever
5. Other
6. Something
7. Nobody
Indefinite pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.

 Would anyone like a coffee?

 Take whatever you like. Jamie took one cookie and Ben took the other.
 Whoever owns this is in big trouble! I want someone to move this now.
Indefinite pronouns can also be used to create sentences that are almost abstract.
Examples could include: this, all, such and something.

 Something tells me this won’t end well.

 Personal pronouns – those associated with a certain person, thing, or group; all
except you have distinct forms that indicate singular or plural number. Personal
pronouns are always specific and are often used to replace a proper noun
(someone’s name) or a collective group of people or things. Personal pronouns
have two main groups, one referring to the subject of the sentence and one to
the object.
The first is used to replace the subject of the sentence: I, you, he, she, it, we, you
and they. Notice that you is repeated as you can be singular, addressing one
person, or plural, addressing a group of people.
Personal pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.
 Jack and David are friends. They play basketball together.
 I have more money than he
 We will be late if you don’t hurry up.
The second group of pronouns replaces the object of the sentence: me, you, him,
her, it, us, you, them. Consider the sentence again:

We will be late if you don’t hurry up.

In the above example, we is the subject of the sentence, but you is the object.
Other examples of pronouns replacing the object:

 Peter sang the song to me.

 Missing the train will cause us to be late.
She packed them tightly in the suitcase.

 Reflexive pronouns – those preceded by the adverb, adjective, pronoun, or

noun to which they refer, and ending in –self or –selves. Reflexive pronouns are
used to refer back to the subject or clause of a sentence. The list of reflexive
pronouns includes: Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves, themselves.
Reflexive pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.
 Count yourselves
 Annie only had herself to blame.
Peter and Paul had baked themselves cakes.

 Demonstrative pronouns – those used to point to something specific within a

sentence. There are only four demonstrative pronouns – this, that, these, those –
but the usage can be a bit tricky at times. This and that are singular,
whereas these and those are plural. As you may have noticed, there can be some
crossover with indefinite pronouns when using this and that.
Demonstrative pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.
 I prefer this.
 These are beautiful, but those belong to Danny.
 Did you see that?
While it can be confusing, this, that, these and those can sometimes be used as
demonstrative adjectives. The difference between the two is that a
demonstrative pronoun replaces the noun and a demonstrative adjective
qualifies the noun.
 I prefer this photo. These flowers are beautiful, but those vases belong to
Danny. Did you see that rainbow?

It should be clear that this, that, these and those in the example above are not
pronouns because they are being used to qualify the noun, but not replace it. A
good trick for remembering the difference is that a demonstrative pronoun
would still make sense if the word one or ones followed it in the sentence.

I prefer this (one). These (ones) are beautiful. Did you

see that (one)? Those (ones) belong to Danny.

 Possessive pronouns – those designating possession or ownership. Examples

include: mine, its, hers, his, yours, ours, theirs, whose. Consider the example:
 This cat is mine.
Mine is indicating possession, that the cat belongs to me. Incidentally, this in the
sentence is not a pronoun but demonstrative adjective as it qualifies the
noun cat. You will find that possessive pronouns often follow phrases that
contain demonstrative adjectives.

Possessive pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.

 Are these bananas yours?

 This money is ours.
Is the fault theirs or yours?

 Relative pronouns –those which refer to nouns mentioned previously, acting to

introduce an adjective (relative) clause. They will usually appear after a noun to
help clarify the sentence or give extra information. Examples include: who,
which, that, whom, whose. Consider the following sentence:
The man who stole the car went to jail. The relative pronoun who acts to refer
back to the noun man. It acts to open a clause by identifying the man as not just
any man, but the one who stole the car.Relative pronoun examples in the
following sentences are in bold for easy identification.
 The table, which sits in the hallway, is used for correspondence.
 The car that crashed into the wall was blue.
 This is the woman, whose key you found.
 Interrogative pronouns –Those which introduce a question. Examples
include: who, whom, whose, what, which. We can usually identify an
interrogative pronoun by the fact that they often appear at the beginning of a
question.
 Interrogative pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.
 Who will come to the party?
 Which do you prefer?
 What do you need?
 Whose clothes are on the floor?
 Whom did you tell?
Whom and who are often confused, and even native speakers will use them
incorrectly. Who will replace the subject of a sentence, whereas whom will
replace the direct or indirect object. A good tip for deciding which to use is that
you can replace who in the sentence with a personal pronoun and it will still
make sense. Who will come to the party? I will come to the party. The same
system would not work for Whom did you tell? I did you tell.

 Reciprocal pronouns –Those expressing mutual actions or relationship; i.e.

one another.
There are just two reciprocal pronouns in English: one another and each other.
They are mainly used to stop unnecessary repetition in a sentence, but also to
reinforce the idea that collective and reciprocal actions are happening to more
than one person or thing.John and Mary gave each othergifts. Using each
other allows us the sentence to be more efficient than: John gave Mary a gift
and Mary gave a gift to John. The countries worked with one another on
national security. In this example, one another works to suggest that the action
of working is being reciprocated back and forth by more than one country.
Reciprocal pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.

 The boxers punched each other

The couple love one another deeply

 Intensive pronouns – those ending in –self or –selves and that serve to

emphasize their antecedents. These are almost identical to reflexive pronouns,
but rather than just referring back to the subject of the sentence they work to
reinforce the action. In many cases, the sentence would still make sense without
the intensive pronoun.
Intensive pronoun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy
identification.
 I will do it myself.
 We made this pie ourselves.
 A nation speaks for itself through elections.
Notice how the intensive pronoun is working to emphasize the statement. The
sentence would still technically be correct without the intensive pronoun, but it
adds some important context to its meaning

Types of noun
There are several different types of noun, as follows:

Common noun
A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy,
country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.
Proper noun
A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing,
e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin
with capital letters.
Concrete noun
A concrete noun is a noun which refers to people and to things that
exist physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. Examples
include dog, building, coffee, tree, rain, beach, tune.
Abstract noun
An abstract noun is a noun which refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions -
things that cannot be seen or touched and things which have no physical reality,
e.g. truth, danger, happiness, time, friendship, humour.
Collective nouns
Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g. audience, family,
government, team, jury. In American English, most collective nouns are treated
as singular, with a singular verb:
The whole family was at the table.
In British English, the preceding sentence would be correct, but it would also be
correct to treat the collective noun as a plural, with a plural verb:

The whole family were at the table.

For more information about this, see matching verbs to collective nouns.
A noun may belong to more than one category. For example, happiness is both
a common noun and an abstract noun, while Mount Everest is both a concrete
noun and a proper noun.
Count and mass nouns
Nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (or count
nouns) are those that refer to something that can be counted. Uncountable
nouns (or mass nouns) do not typically refer to things that can be counted and
so they do not regularly have a plural form
A compound noun is a noun that is made up of two or more words. Most
compound nouns in English are formed by nouns modified by other nouns or
adjectives.

For example:

The words tooth and paste are each nouns in their own right, but if you join
them together they form a new word - toothpaste.

The word black is an adjective and board is a noun, but if you join them
together they form a new word - blackboard.
In both these example the first word modifies or describes the second word,
telling us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is. And the
second part identifies the object or person in question.

Compound nouns can also be formed using the following combinations of

words:-

Noun + Noun toothpaste

Adjective + Noun monthly ticket